


Birthdays of an old friend

by Komi



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-17
Updated: 2013-02-17
Packaged: 2017-11-29 14:43:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/688145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Komi/pseuds/Komi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every year on Jesse's birthday, Xander goes to the graveyard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthdays of an old friend

Every year on Jesse's birthday, Xander goes to the graveyard by himself with a can of beer and a cupcake, finds himself a gravestone where the name has been completely worn down to nothingness and settles in. Sure, it's not Jesse's grave, per se, but he figures it's the thought that counts and the body six feet under could probably use the company anyway. He usually ends up finishing the beer and cupcake by dusk 'cause hey, it's not like it's actually Jesse's grave so someone might as well enjoy it.  
  
That's another thing about this tradition; he's not stupid enough to do it at night, what with the vamps and Buffy prowling around in the dark doing their locked-in-eternal-warfare thing. This is about him and Jesse, like when they still had a painted "No Girls Allowed" sign to discourage Willow from always hanging around during their cooties phase. It's supposed to be a private moment, and there's no way he's getting that when it's dark in Sunnydale.  
  
Some years he sings "Happy Birthday" and talks to the air like a crazy person, reminiscing when they first discovered comic books, Star Wars, and girls (in that order). Other years he just sits there in silence and mutters a quiet "I'm sorry, man" as he leaves.  
  
The day before they execute "Save The World and Abandon Sunnydale" he sneaks away to the graveyard for twenty minutes with a bottle of tequila and a cake - it's about time for an upgrade. He apologizes in his head for the un-birthday timing, but what's a guy to do when the town he grew up in might be reduced to a pile of rubble, or better yet wiped off the face of the earth?  
  
"You were right," he said to the air, "We totally should have run away to Gotham City when we were ten. It definitely would have been the better option even if it doesn't, you know, exist."  
  
He leaves the tequila and cake untouched this time and doesn't look back as he walks away.


End file.
